[Correspondence] The hepatitis B epidemic in China should receive more attention

China’s childhood hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination programme is a great public health success, resulting in a prevalence of HBsAg of only 1% in children under 5 years. However, the burden of HBV infection in China is still the highest in the world, with one third of the world’s 240 million people with chronic HBV living in China.1 Nevertheless, most people with HBV infection in China are unaware that they carry the disease, making HBV infection a truly silent epidemic.2